Bagels and Ballots – Monday

-Eric Cantor, minority whip and congress’s only Jewish Republican, penned a Wall Street Journal op-ed titled “Tax Fight: GOP Won’t Back Down.” He cites the economic struggles of “small businesses and investors” as a reason why he and the GOP won’t back down in opposing a continuation of federal tax cuts that would exempt those earning more than $250,000. (Wall Street Journal)

-The White House is gunning for a fight as it mulls over strategies to keep congress in Democratic hands, according to the New York Times. One potential strategy: national advertisements that cast the GOP as hijacked by Tea Party fanatics. (The West Wing told Politico the story is inaccurate). (New York Times)

-Things are heating up in Florida’s 22nd District, where Republican Allen West faces incumbent Democrat Ron Klein. A mailer from the Florida Democratic Party included West’s tax papers – and social security number. (Palm Beach Post)

-A 1999 video surfaced of Christine O’Donnell – Delaware’s Republican senatorial candidate and Tea Partier – that featured her saying that she “dabbled in witchcraft” but never joined a coven. In response, she tweeted: I did comment that if I were a witch, Rove would be a supporter. I would have turned him into a “Newt”, because Gingrich says we win.

-And as former Hewlett-Packard executive Carly Fiorinafights to unseat California’s Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer, she’s sounding more and more like a Tea Partier herself. (L.A. Times)

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